Classical Guitar Classes Naperville IL

Classical guitar classes include lessons on right hand positions, rest stroke, free stroke, playing scales, pedal tones, vibrato, basic arpeggios and more. See below for local music schools in Naperville that give access to instruction in guitar playing techniques as well as advice and content on playing classical guitar.

Subjects
Trumpet, Piano, Ukulele, Bass Guitar, Guitar, Music Performance, Classical Guitar, Singing, Music Theory, Opera Voice, Flamenco GuitarAges Taught
10 to 99Specialties
My experience has been concentrated in classical guitar. However, I was a voice minor for all three degrees, and have sung in professional choirs (His Majestie's Clerkes, now Bella Voce) and paid church choirs (St. Luke's in Evanston as well as St. Chrysostom's and St. John Cantius in Chicago) for the past 26 years. My first instrument was trumpet, which I played in high school and college. I also studied piano in high school and college. In graduate school I performed in early music ensemble…Education
Indiana University - Musicology - 1969-1973 (PhD degree received) Indiana University - Music Theory - 1963-1967 (Master's degree received) Georgetown College - Music Education - 1958-1962 (Bachelor's degree received)Membership Organizations
TakeLessons Music Teacher

Put That Guitar Down

For all the words of encouragement you have ever heard pertaining to picking up the guitar and practicing, either from me or your own sources, this article may come as a bit of a surprise to you. For once I am going to tell you to put the guitar down!

A little confused? Don't be, I'll try to explain. And the best way I can get my point across is by sharing an experience I personally had some time ago.

Back in the 80's, I went to music college in London. I feverishly studied classical guitar for 3 years. Practiced for hours each day. During this time I really developed some good disciplinary skills as far as practice was concerned. I would split up the day. Morning playing Bach fugues or whatever torturous classical guitar piece that had enslaved me at the time. A break for lunch, and in the afternoon I would pick up my electric guitar and plough through violin and flute music, which I'd rented from the music school library, to get my sight-reading together. Reading jazz and pop music is very different from classical music because phrasing interpretation is relative to the genre being played. So it is as much about listening to the band as it is reading the note values. So I wanted to get that together. Finally I worked on jazz harmony, specifically vocabulary for playing over changes. The Charlie Parker Omnibook was my bible, but I would also listen to be-bop players and steal their phrases and try to figure out how I should work them into my own playing. I remember stealing from Cannonball Adderly, Miles Davis, Mike Brecker, and I fell in love with the swinging styles of pianists Red Garland and Wynton Kelly, both of whom played on Miles Davis' album "Milestones", a record that had a profound effect on me. Just as importantly, I listened to the way these musicians would feel the music. It wasn't just about the notes.

Wynton Kelly in particular had a certain thing about playing over altered chords. He would play 4 note phrases that would be repeated in thirds going down. Sometimes in whole tones. In fact many jazz guys I knew at the time would make fun of his style a little bit by singing his name as they played those motifs, going "Wyn-ton-Kell-ey-Wyn-ton-Kell-ey" and so on. After I got the hang of his ideas I would find myself sitting at the guitar and working out my own variations of those ideas. Pretty soon I had a whole bag of Wynton style 'tricks".

And then something interesting happened...

I would practice and practice these new motifs and melodic ideas and really try to work them into my playing. Pretty soon I had a pretty broad library of resources I could draw from. And I would practice them over Jamie Abersold records and so on. The woodshedding continued. Over time, I realized that some of those phrases were technically difficult to play on guitar (...

Looking for Bass Guitar Amps in Naperville, IL? We have compiled a list of businesses and services around Naperville that should help you with your search. We hope this page helps you find Bass Guitar Amps in Naperville.